Linux-Advocacy Digest #319, Volume #28 Wed, 9 Aug 00 00:13:08 EDT
Contents:
Re: Micro$oft retests TPC benchmark ("Spud")
Re: Are Linux people illiterate? (Courageous)
Re: Micro$oft retests TPC benchmark (Courageous)
Re: BASIC == Beginners language (Was: Just curious.... (R.E.Ballard ( Rex Ballard ))
Re: Windows ME $59.99..Good Bye Linux. .Thanks for the fish..... (A transfinite
number of monkeys)
Re: Windows ME $59.99..Good Bye Linux. .Thanks for the fish.....
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: What I've always said: Netcraft numbers of full of it (R.E.Ballard ( Rex Ballard
))
Re: Richard Stallman's Politics (was: Linux is awesome! (Leslie Mikesell)
Windows has made me stupid !!! Thanks, Bill. (Windows is worst than Crack-Cocaine)
(N_User)
- Windows has made me stupid !!! Thanks, Bill. (Windows is worst than Crack-Cocaine)
- (I got to say it again!!!) (New_User)
Re: Paging BIG DON (Loren Petrich)
Re: Would a M$ Voluntary Split Save It? (Leslie Mikesell)
Re: Windows ME $59.99..Good Bye Linux. .Thanks for the fish..... (Craig Kelley)
Re: rat head linsux (Craig Kelley)
Re: software assistance/small business (Craig Kelley)
Re: Sucking fees? Please help (OSguy)
Re: If Microsoft starts renting apps (R.E.Ballard ( Rex Ballard ))
Re: 20 Diablo II Wallpapers!!! (Craig Kelley)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: Micro$oft retests TPC benchmark
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 19:21:18 -0700
[snips]
"Aaron R. Kulkis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Spud wrote:
> > Your tax dollars at work, folks. Paying for Aaron to post to advocacy
> > groups. :)
>
> I suggest you complain to
> Tell him that I am wasting valuable tax dollars posting
> to USENET all day.
>
> I'm sure he'll laugh in your face....MORON!
Probably, and he'd be entirely justified, just as _our_ miltiary and
government would be justified in laughing in your face were you to complain
about _our_ taxt dollars being wasted on something you thought was
frivolous.
Oh, I see, you completely failed to notice the "your" in my post, didn't
you? You'd do well to actually _read_ what you're responding to, rather
than just flying off the handle at everything; you'd look less foolish.
------------------------------
From: Courageous <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Are Linux people illiterate?
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 02:28:01 GMT
> > > > "Payed" is much more logical than "paid".
> > > > Just try to *logically*
> > > > explain why "shure" is a misspelling.
"Shure" is a misspelling, because it *is* -- by
definition. But if you want a system that makes
sense, switch to a purely phonetic system which
makes use of natural dipthongs. All you would need
is some mechanism of distinguishing long vowels
from short ones.
We would then have the much more sensible:
"Shure" iz eI misspelIng, bIcuz it iz -- beI
definishun. but if U want a sistem thet meIkz
sens, swich tU e pyUrlI fOnetik sistem wich
meIkz yUs uf natral dipthangz. al U wud nId
iz sum mekanizm uf distIngwishIng lang vawuls
frum short wunz.
C//
------------------------------
From: Courageous <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: Micro$oft retests TPC benchmark
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 02:30:28 GMT
> Oh, I see, you completely failed to notice the "your" in my post, didn't
> you? You'd do well to actually _read_ what you're responding to, rather
> than just flying off the handle at everything; you'd look less foolish.
It's equally foolish for him to flaunt his behavior,
as, technically, it's a misuse of government equipment
and property.
C//
------------------------------
From: R.E.Ballard ( Rex Ballard ) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: BASIC == Beginners language (Was: Just curious....
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 02:32:00 GMT
In article <8l2m12$ci4$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Christopher Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> "Perry Pip" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
>
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]..
.
> > On Wed, 19 Jul 2000 01:13:02 +1000,
> > Christopher Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > >"Perry Pip" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> >
>news:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
..
> > >> From http://www.fys.ruu.nl/~bergmann/history.html
> > >>
> > >> "BASIC (standing for Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction
> > >> Code)...the designers wished it to be a stepping-stone for
> > >> students to
> > >> learn on of the more powerful languages..."
> > >>
> > >> 'nuff said.
> > >
> > >And this stops it being useful.........how ?
> > >
> >
> > Huh?? You really are a terrible reader. My quote of the article
> > clearly indicates what BASIC was intended to be useful for: training
> > beginners how to program.
>
> And this stops it being useful.........how ?
Unfortunately, BASIC also promotes a number of bad habits which
must later be driven out of the programming vocabulary. Things
like using global variables as arguments by having both the calling
routine and the subroutine are necessary in BASIC. Visual BASIC and
QBASIC now support user definable functions with private local
arguments. Most beginner BASIC tutorials however are written for
a more "Generic" basic.
Use of goto statements, especially calculated goto statements,
is also a bit "unkosher". Again, these are bad habits that must
be later unlearned when supporting mulitple users, multiple windows,
and multiple threads.
Microsoft as a company never really got the concept of reentrancy.
In UNIX reentrant code can be shared among numerous processes, while
variables and buffers are private to the subroutine and process using
them. Microsoft's solution to lack of reentrancy in their own system
libraries was to put spinlocks everywhere. Eventually, the spinlocks
kept blocking the system, and when they removed the spinlocks,
applications that called older legacy APIs started doing terrible
things.
Microsoft has pretty much tried to "Un-BASIC BASIC" for years. While
this has made their implementation more useful as a tool, it begins
to blurr the distinctions between Visual BASIC and C. Unfortunately,
Visual Basic is only implemented on Microsoft platforms, while C and
PERL are implemented on BOTH Windows and UNIX/Linux.
A developer who wanted to hedge his bets, cash in on a fast-growing
new market, and still have easy access to the existing Windows markets
would be very wise to consider using a portable language such as C,
PERL, TCL, or Java. Is there a Python for Windows? These are
languages that are "complile-and-run". It takes so little time to
compile them (often less than 100 milliseconds per thousand lines)
that it's faster and easier to just compile them once and run them
in a tight loop.
PERL got a bad reputation because the generic CGI/PERL interface
cause CGI to exec a new PERL image with each incoming message. This
meant that each message caused a load, compile, link and
initialization, before it parsed the 1 line of HTTP request and
generated the output. Apache/Mod_PERL used a server which let the
perl module run continuously and the Apache server would simply pass
the message and wait for a response.
PERL is still a bit crippled in the NT Resource kit, but it's
quite functional. If BASIC wasn't too much of a struggle,
PERL should be quite easy.
Of course, with any language, the biggest challenge is managing
the inventory of library and utility calls. Microsoft has solved
this with Visual Studio. Linux has resolved this with searchable
web pages and man pages.
--
Rex Ballard - I/T Architect, MIS Director
Linux Advocate, Internet Pioneer
http://www.open4success.com
Linux - 42 million satisfied users worldwide
and growing at over 5%/month! (recalibrated 8/2/00)
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (A transfinite number of monkeys)
Subject: Re: Windows ME $59.99..Good Bye Linux. .Thanks for the fish.....
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 02:53:03 GMT
On Tue, 08 Aug 2000 20:20:37 GMT, Mike Marion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: A transfinite number of monkeys wrote:
:
: Actually the Livewire being discussed is the name of the driver/software
: suite for the SBLive cards for Windows.
Oh, *LiveWare*.
^^^^
That utterly useless suite of applications that I've got on the Windoze
side? What's the big deal about LiveWare? The stupid launcher, the ugly
sound recorder, and that oh-so-important app, the one that lets me
decide if I'm running 2 speakers, 4 speakers or headphones? Ooooh.
Ahhh.. Give me a break.
--
Jason Costomiris <>< | Technologist, geek, human.
jcostom {at} jasons {dot} org | http://www.jasons.org/
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Windows ME $59.99..Good Bye Linux. .Thanks for the fish.....
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 03:00:35 GMT
Synth A or B.
The sampler option.
The effects.
And a whole lot more. Granted if all you want is beeps and squeaks
from games, you don't need Livewire. My point is that this card is
really not fully supported under Linux. You might as well buy a SB-16,
because you are not getting what you paid for.
BTW I agree with you concerning the launcher, it's the first thing I
delete.
Claire
On Wed, 09 Aug 2000 02:53:03 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (A transfinite
number of monkeys) wrote:
>On Tue, 08 Aug 2000 20:20:37 GMT, Mike Marion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>: A transfinite number of monkeys wrote:
>:
>: Actually the Livewire being discussed is the name of the driver/software
>: suite for the SBLive cards for Windows.
>
>Oh, *LiveWare*.
> ^^^^
>
>That utterly useless suite of applications that I've got on the Windoze
>side? What's the big deal about LiveWare? The stupid launcher, the ugly
>sound recorder, and that oh-so-important app, the one that lets me
>decide if I'm running 2 speakers, 4 speakers or headphones? Ooooh.
>Ahhh.. Give me a break.
------------------------------
From: R.E.Ballard ( Rex Ballard ) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: What I've always said: Netcraft numbers of full of it
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 03:03:38 GMT
In article <Tojd5.29972$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Drestin Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:8l3e20$te$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > "Drestin Black" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >
> > >There are vendors selling W2K solutions with 99.999% uptime - just
like
> the
> > >other *nix vendors.
> >
> > Really? Who? Got a few URLs?
> Start here: http://www.stratus.com/
This is the only document I saw.
http://www.stratus.com/whitep/ftserver/
In this article, Stratus describes how their software (essentially
an operating system on wrapping the Win2K operating system) will
enable loosely coupled clusters sufficiently large as to create
a much higher uptime.
At no point did they give any availability figures.
At no point did they claim 99.999% uptime for this particular
platform (this requires a system which is immune to DOS hacks,
viral attacks, and application avalanche - which Windows does not
provide.
It is possible to see that a clustered array of Stratus encapsulated
NT servers, say 20-30 machines, could theoretically provide 10 ppm
downtime. Unfortunately, Stratus values it's credibility too much
to give Windows 2000 the "five nines" until it has several hundred
clusters running with a total agregate uptime of 99.999% over a
period of at least one year.
>
> Tell me - how does ANYONE guarantee 99.999% uptime for any OS?
Actually, I worked for a company that did guarantee 99.9997% uptime,
3 parts per million downtime, and if they went above that, they have
you several thousand dollars in cash returned. If it exceeded a high
enough figure, they even removed the equipment and refunded your money.
Since each system cost nearly $30 million, and the cost of a system
failure was nearly $60,000 a MINUTE, we had to make promises like that.
And since this was a smaller company (about $250 million/year in
revenue), failure was not an option. I often thought that if Herm
Affle had said "We'll create a system that's 10 times faster than
anything else out there, deliver it and have it fully functional
on December 30th, and it will cost less than 20 PCs, or we'll give
you everything back, he would have delivered. He made impossible
promises and kept them, to Rochester Tel, to AT&T, to MCI, and
to British Telecom. And we used UNIX.
> And you phrased your question correctly "when their
> hardware fails" - not the OS.
Actually, the Stratus guarantee is on the entire system. Essentially,
Stratus designs their systems with the assumption that systems will
fail. In many cases, they even design their systems to support
multiple concurrent points of failure. The individual Windows 2000
machines could fail once a week, but as long as all (10?) of them
didn't fail at the same time, the mtbf counter would still be running.
Typically, the actual MTTR is also microscopic. A single point of
failure would result in the loss of all outstanding requests on that
machine, which would be recovered and restored by the front-end or
back-end system. Each transaction exists concurrently on at least
two machines and can be reinitiated in a matter of milliseconds.
The MTTR in this case, from a system point of view, is only around
200 to 700 milliseconds (the retry/cutover time).
Is it theoretically possible to come up with a system that delivers
99.999% uptime using W2K components? Probably so.
Has anyone actually announced that they have actually delivered
such a system - even Microsoft can't make that claim.
--
Rex Ballard - I/T Architect, MIS Director
Linux Advocate, Internet Pioneer
http://www.open4success.com
Linux - 42 million satisfied users worldwide
and growing at over 5%/month! (recalibrated 8/2/00)
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
Crossposted-To: gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Richard Stallman's Politics (was: Linux is awesome!
Date: 8 Aug 2000 22:09:20 -0500
In article <8mkc51$iui$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Lee Hollaar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In article <8mkb5i$2fja$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
>discusses how many angels can dance on the head of a pin:
>
>>Even more complicated than that: If you accept the oddball concept
>>that all programs loaded into the same address space become
>>derivatives of each other, how do you deal with the case where
>
>Assuming you are talking about "derivative works" as part of copyright
>law, then nobody with any understanding of the law accepts that concept.
I'm talking about what RMS and the FSF call derivative works.
>Some people seem to think that a program that is written to take advantage
>of the interface to another program is a derivative work of that program.
>That does not seem to match the definition of "derivative work" in the
>copyright statute, nor has any court case interpreted the statute that
>way.
They claim not to be talking about interface copyrights. In the
case of RIPEM, the existence of an alternative library with
an identical interface was claimed to make the other code
which used the gmp library no longer a derived work.
>If you are talking about a "derivative" as something different from a
>"derivative work" in the copyright sense, then it would all depend on
>how you define "derivative". But then, who really cares?
Anyone who might face a lawsuit from the FSF might care. Even
if the law turns out to be on their side it would be inconvenient.
>>one program is capable of dynamically loading many separate
>>components under scripted control. Perl and apache do this
>>along with many others. Now, if someone distributes a perl
>>script that causes perl to load GPL'd readline along with
>>some commercial database library (for example), does this
>>create an illegal situation according to copyright law, and
>>if so, who is at fault? Or, in Apache/mod_perl, the
>
>What "illegal situation according to copyright law"? And remember, if
>you are the owner of a copy of a computer program, you get to copy it and
>modify it as necessary to use it. 17 USC 117.
Does that mean there is no possible interpretation to support
the FSF claim?
>>components are loaded as needed for each request but remain
>>in memory for the life of the httpd child. What if unrelated
>>web pages load different modules to create the same circumstance.
>>In this case there may be no actual dependency between the
>>two modules, yet they become loaded into the same memory
>>address space.
>
>So what? Please state how you feel copyright law applies to these
>situations, indicating the sections of the Copyright Act of 1978,
>as amended, that you feel apply.
The GPL is the only license that I am aware of that even mentions
trying to control the 'work as a whole' so the issue would not
normally come up. Most distributors of commercial libraries
are happy to see additional code use their product as long as the
end user has met the distribution requirements for the library
itself. How else can you interpret the FSF's ideas on mixing
GPL and other code in plug-ins? Personally I don't see any
relationship to copyright laws at all, but...
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: N_User <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.os.windows2000,alt.linux,alt.windows98
Subject: Windows has made me stupid !!! Thanks, Bill. (Windows is worst than
Crack-Cocaine)
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 17:59:01 -0400
I was doing so well with computers, I had a BBS going, I was
programming, etc...
Then Windows came out and turned me into a point and click idiot.
I had a bright future in the IT industry, but Windows has turned me
into a win-idiot.
I'm hoping Linux can rehabilitate me. Make my brain work again.
Thanks for nothing windows.
------------------------------
From: New_User <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.os.windows2000,alt.linux,alt.windows98,alt.linux.os
Subject: - Windows has made me stupid !!! Thanks, Bill. (Windows is worst than
Crack-Cocaine) - (I got to say it again!!!)
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 07:01:33 -0400
I was doing so well with computers, I had a BBS going, I was
programming, etc...
Then Windows came out and turned me into a point and click idiot.
I had a bright future in the IT industry, but Windows has turned me
into a win-idiot.
I'm hoping Linux can rehabilitate me. Make my brain work again.
Thanks for nothing windows.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Loren Petrich)
Crossposted-To:
misc.legal,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.libertarian,talk.politics.libertarian
Subject: Re: Paging BIG DON
Date: 9 Aug 2000 03:21:56 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Aaron R. Kulkis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Donovan Rebbechi wrote:
[Defectors from the Soviet Union...]
>> IOW, I wouldn't take their word at face value, but they certainly would
>> be able to bring some real evidence to the table ( if that indeed existed ).
A good example of an untrustworthy defector would be one who
claimed that Communism is a Jewish invention and that Communist leaders do
what they do because they are all Jews. I'm not sure that Golitsyn has
gone *that* far, but his not revealing supposedly smuggled documents is a
serious problem.
>> Even if there really is such a "conspiracy", you also need to show that
>> they've had some success.
>Would you be willing to accept the opinion Thomas Sowell?
[Approving review of The Bell Curve deleted]
However, that book claims that black people are naturally dumber
than white people -- and it does *not* blame their problems on some
Communist conspiracy. This claim ought to be awfully embarrassing for Mr.
Sowell, since it makes him seem like a natural born dumbbell.
--
Loren Petrich Happiness is a fast Macintosh
[EMAIL PROTECTED] And a fast train
My home page: http://www.petrich.com/home.html
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: Would a M$ Voluntary Split Save It?
Date: 8 Aug 2000 22:20:38 -0500
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
T. Max Devlin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Said [EMAIL PROTECTED] () in comp.os.linux.advocacy;
>>On Tue, 01 Aug 2000 18:31:23 GMT, Chris Wenham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> [...]
>>> Would Intuit provide support to a customer running Quicken in VMWare?
>>
>> Would Intuit provide meaningful support otherwise?
>>
>>[deletia]
>>
>> 'support' is really an absurd feature when it comes to
>> consumer computing.
>
>An interesting point I'd like to explore. In my mind, 'support' is
>really the only value or service when it comes to consumer computing, if
>not simply the most important feature. In the "GPL utopia", I would
>think that developers give their software away, simply to provide an
>opportunity for them to sell support to those consumers who wish to use
>their code.
I don't see how this model can be sucessful for most software
if the intent is to make money. If the software is done
correctly it will just work and the users will have no reason
to purchase support. If it isn't, then they won't run it
in the first place. It might work for unusual software
being written to meet changing needs, or perhaps the support
service could include training for the more complicated programs,
but if the software needs paid support just for normal operation
you have done something wrong.
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Windows ME $59.99..Good Bye Linux. .Thanks for the fish.....
From: Craig Kelley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 08 Aug 2000 21:25:28 -0600
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Hello Steve.
> Synth A or B.
> The sampler option.
> The effects.
> And a whole lot more. Granted if all you want is beeps and squeaks
> from games, you don't need Livewire. My point is that this card is
> really not fully supported under Linux. You might as well buy a SB-16,
> because you are not getting what you paid for.
>
> BTW I agree with you concerning the launcher, it's the first thing I
> delete.
>
>
> Claire
>
>
> On Wed, 09 Aug 2000 02:53:03 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (A transfinite
> number of monkeys) wrote:
>
> >On Tue, 08 Aug 2000 20:20:37 GMT, Mike Marion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >: A transfinite number of monkeys wrote:
> >:
> >: Actually the Livewire being discussed is the name of the driver/software
> >: suite for the SBLive cards for Windows.
> >
> >Oh, *LiveWare*.
> > ^^^^
> >
> >That utterly useless suite of applications that I've got on the Windoze
> >side? What's the big deal about LiveWare? The stupid launcher, the ugly
> >sound recorder, and that oh-so-important app, the one that lets me
> >decide if I'm running 2 speakers, 4 speakers or headphones? Ooooh.
> >Ahhh.. Give me a break.
>
--
The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.
Craig Kelley -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.isu.edu/~kellcrai finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP block
------------------------------
Subject: Re: rat head linsux
From: Craig Kelley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 08 Aug 2000 21:29:09 -0600
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> has anyone any idea why RedHat keep shipping new versions of linux with
> OLD programs?
>
> They keep not shipping BASH v2.02 (or whatever is newer) instead
> prefering to use an older 1.x.x version.
>
> I really don't understand.
Bash2 breaks some older programs, and anyone who is savvy enough to
know the difference probably knows how to install and make bash2 their
default shell.
--
The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.
Craig Kelley -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.isu.edu/~kellcrai finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP block
------------------------------
Subject: Re: software assistance/small business
From: Craig Kelley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 08 Aug 2000 21:29:48 -0600
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Other than microsoft what is available in a package to link
> word/email/database-contact/organiser software.......
What "productivity" suite *doesn't* do all the above?
--
The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.
Craig Kelley -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.isu.edu/~kellcrai finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP block
------------------------------
From: OSguy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Sucking fees? Please help
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 22:44:15 -0500
Set your newsreader to display all header information. Then note the
'X-No-Archive: yes' line. The presence of this line with the yes option
tells deja.com and the other news archivers to not store this message in
their archives.
Finally, A Wintroll too embarrassed to be Archived!
==============
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I hope I've caught your attention with the subject line. I tried to
> retrieve the posts from the sweet little old lady who recently joined
> this NG smelling of fish, but (*wonderment*)... there is no trace of
> her/him/it at all in DejaNews. I cannot figure that one out and, I
> believe, this is the very first time that I see such a glitch (not you,
> Glitch). I am curious. How can a series of posts to a newsgroup
> _consistently_ fail to appear on DejaNews?
>
> (Said sweet little old lady mentioned in a post that she was "expensive"
> so I wondered if her concern could not possibly be because Linux sucks
> for less than she does--clearly, Windows blows for more than she does,
> that's why she doesn't mind Windows. Yet, I'd like to ferret out that
> post, and DejaNews glitch (go away, Glitch!) really puzzles me).
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: R.E.Ballard ( Rex Ballard ) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: If Microsoft starts renting apps
Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2000 03:31:16 GMT
In article <3q5d5.1149$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Tony Davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Does anyone here think that Linux will
> become more popular if Windows and
> every other Microsoft app goes to a rent basis?
Actually, Microsoft would be being more honest about it's business
practices, and it would radically shift the emphasis.
It's a double edged sword. The up-side is that Microsoft would
have the incentive to provide the best support possible in the form
of free upgrades (included as part of the support package), and at
the same time, would create less incentive to create huge "monster
releases" that create great news-copy but traumatize corporations.
What it WOULD do is create a more receptive market for Windows 2000.
As for Linux, the real strength of Linux is that it has a huge
support organization which includes a mulitlevel support network
that eventually trickles up, but creates some intense incentives
among the folks who deal directly with the customers.
If Larry Wall had to answer every beginner's question about PERL,
he'd never get a chance to sleep (since PERL users are all around
the world, on all 7 continents). If instead, Larry has people who
know perl and can handle problems paying him a retainer for the
"really nasty ones", you can see that Larry could do pretty well.
This isn't much different from what your HMO does. Your HMO pays
your primary care physician a retainer, a flat monthly fee, just
to make sure that he is available and able to treat you. If there
is something seriously wrong, the doctor gives discounted services
to the HMO. If things are pretty much routine, your doctor just
sends the work to a lab (who has also agreed to a lower rate in
exchange for a retainer).
At the top of the chain is the HMO itself, who collects from the
customer, pays the doctor, and handles any complaints or problems
the patient might have.
The real question is whether Microsoft can create a sufficiently
knowledgable base of "care providers" to cover the need and demand.
There are lot's of MCSE's out there, but they will need to be able
to do much more than restart, reboot, reinstall, and reengineer.
The challenge for the MCSEs will be that they will be competing with
LSEs who are better informed, have better organization, and have a
stable base of 3rd party software on which to depend.
It's quite probable that both Microsoft AND Linux will win. Microsoft
will have a more stable source of revenue that isn't dependent on
getting intelligent people to dump perfectly functional PCs in order
to get the latest version of Windows. They will also have a better
business plan, similar to those used by IBM, Anderson, EDS, and a
number of companies who provide outsourcing, support, and management.
Ultimately however, the big winner will be the end-user consumer.
With the ability to choose between service providers, between
operating systems, and between branches of the supply chain,
the consumer will have the power to make some real and meaningful
choices.
> Tony
--
Rex Ballard - I/T Architect, MIS Director
Linux Advocate, Internet Pioneer
http://www.open4success.com
Linux - 42 million satisfied users worldwide
and growing at over 5%/month! (recalibrated 8/2/00)
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.networking
Subject: Re: 20 Diablo II Wallpapers!!!
From: Craig Kelley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 08 Aug 2000 21:40:07 -0600
"WWW.CSN23.COM" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 20 Diablo II wallpapers
>
> http://csn23.com
Hmmm.
$ ftp csn23.com
Connected to csn23.com
220 ns7.newsbook.net FTP server (Version wu-2.5.0(1) Tue Sep 21 16:48:12 EDT 1999)
ready.
Spammers running wuftpd 2.5, fun stuff!
> (Almost daily-updated w/ more than 50000 daily page views)
What does this have to do with Linux again?
--
The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.
Craig Kelley -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.isu.edu/~kellcrai finger [EMAIL PROTECTED] for PGP block
------------------------------
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